Portuguese unicorn OutSystems launches AI program for software development

Born in Portugal and headquartered in the US, OutSystems announces the launch of outsystems.ai, a new program that “advances the company’s mission to bring the power of Artificial Intelligence and Machine-Learning to software development.”

According to a report by EY and Microsoft, just over €2.9 million was invested in AI startups in Portugal in the past decade with only eight transactions taking place during the last 10 years, according to the report.

Of these eight transactions, only six reported the values of the transactions, which total €2.9 million, implying the actual amount is higher.

Forty-five percent of the Portuguese companies surveyed had not yet begun to actively pilot any AI initiatives vs. 29% on average for their European peers, Portugal Startups reports.

It is with this backdrop that OutSystems is putting into action a new AI initiative.

The outsystems.ai project builds on the company’s previously announced “Project Turing” AI initiative. Project Turing, named for the father of theoretical computer science and artificial intelligence Alan Turing, established a new AI Center of Excellence in Lisbon, committed 20 percent of the company’s overall R&D budget to AI/ML, and developed partnerships with industry experts, tech leaders, and universities to drive original research and innovation.

Antonio Alegria

“The outsystems.ai initiative illustrates the commitment OutSystems is making to explore new technologies that improve software development processes,” said Antonio Alegria, head of OutSystems AI group.

“We look forward to building on Project Turing, which aims to continue the evolution of intuitive development started by the Turing programming language. Humans speaking the language of computers has brought technology a long way, but as machines continue to change and their ubiquity in our daily lives increases, we need to evolve bi-directional communication in a way that is more natural for everyone,” he added.

Alegria’s team at OutSystems has several academic initiatives underway. A partnership with Dr. Ruben Martins, a renowned research scientist at Carnegie Mellon University, is exploring program synthesis, which is the idea that computers can write programs automatically. OutSystems also has other ongoing research projects with researchers at IST and Técnico Lisboa.

Paulo Rosado

“Eight months ago, we announced our bold vision for Project Turing. Today’s launch of outsystems.ai moves the needle even further toward reducing the complexity of development and changing enterprise software with exciting new and ongoing research into AI-assisted development,” said OutSystems CEO Paulo Rosado.

OutSystems also announced its Early Access Program (EAP) for outsystems.ai’s new application development AI co-pilot, the developer’s intelligent right hand for faster, more intuitive development. EAP participants will get early access to outsystems.ai applied research that can accelerate application development by 25 percent.

Through usage and feedback, EAP participants will also help OutSystems improve the accuracy of outsystems.ai and influence the roadmap of outsystems.ai moving forward.

Founded in 2001 and now headquartered in the US, OutSystems is the only solution that combines the power of low-code development with advanced mobile capabilities, enabling visual development of entire application portfolios that easily integrate with existing systems.

OutSystems is widely regarded as the leader in its market due to the breadth and depth of the platform. The company serves thousands of customers globally and is recognized as one of the fastest-growing technology companies with revenues well above $100 million and growing at more than 70 percent annually.